As I lay in my bed I look to my left where my window is, I feel sunlight warming my face. I look to my right where there is an enormous portrait of my father, the king. He's dead now and from then on my mother, the queen, now rules the kingdom.    

       I get up from my feather bed. Running my fingers through my wavy black hair. I head towards the mirror.                                                                          I look into the mirror turning from left to right. I notice my hair has gotten longer. I could never bring myself to cut it after my dad died. I sit down and wait for Ava who will fix my hair as soon as she gets here. 

     I gaze at myself in the mirror. My face is round now and it has a small slender nose that curves up and my mysterious purple eyes stare back at me. I have a childlike feature since I am only thirteen. I turn fourteen in a couple months and thats when I get to see my uncle from his kingdom.  

    I hear a knock on the door. It must be Ava. Ava has been my chambermaid since I was six. We have been best friends ever since. 

    "Come in." I say stepping away from the mirror.  

    "Hey." she says.

    "Hey." I reply.

    "Ready for a day with her highness?" 

    My mother likes to be treated with respect, but she goes overboard with it. If a subject of the kingdom makes a mistake, they are executed. There is a possibility one of these days I be executed along with the other subjects.  

    "Do I have to go spend a day with her?" I ask. "And watch innocent people get killed?" 

    "Sadly yes." She unravels the dress she has in her hands and holds it up. "Lets get you ready for the day."

    "Fine." 

     I look down at the dress she has in her hands and it's a pale pink gown with a lot of lace and long sleeves. I hate pink but I know my mother sent it for me to wear today. I look back up at Ava. She has a thin boney like figure which makes her face a bit thin looking and her skin dull. She still manages to keep her red, medium-length hair despite the food she's occasionally given. She's beautiful, and my mother envies it.

    I change into the dress and it itches my skin. When I'm done with that Ava puts my hair up, its always up because my mother envies my hair.

    I look into the mirror and see someone else and sigh. This is not me.

     I get up and say thank you to Ava as I head down to have breakfast with my mother. As I go down the marble staircases and I find the doors that leads me to my doom.  I say thank the servant who opens the door for me. There I see her with her black hair straightened, a mouse like nose and her green eyes staring straight at me. 

    She who is my mother. She who is the queen. 

    She who is a murder of five thousand innocent people. Almost everyday at least one person is executed.

    This has started when I was seven. My mothers temper is the shortest and it gets shorter every day. Once my father had died she made what once was a nice peaceful kingdom into a fear stricken death territory. People tremble in fear when they see her. Even I tremble in fear.

    When I was five my father was murdered. I remember waking up to people running and screaming. Curious of what was going on, I followed them. They led me to see the most devastating thing; my fathers dead body.

    My mother however was remaining a straight face telling the people to calm down and that the guards will find the killer as soon as possible. But the killer was never found. Six months after his death the guards were all executed by my mother for not finding the killer. The human guards were replaced with android guards.

    I sit down in the red velvet chair and look up. My mother is staring at me inspecting me from head to toe. Her intensifying glare sickens me as she stares me down.

    She looks back in envy. She gets jealous easily, especially of beauty. She used to be beautiful before my father died. But now, sometimes if your too beautiful then you could get killed for it. Everyone must be below her.   

    "Sophie." she says in the most intimidating tone. I look at her expecting an insult to slip from her tongue.

    But nothing happens, instead she goes back to checking her nails and planning on who or who's not going to be killed today. She is in her early thirties but she still maintains a youthful look due to many plastic surgeries. Now she is ninety five percent plastic. 

    Finally, the servant bring us our breakfast, one of them sets the plate down to my mother. She inspects it with her fork. Finally she lets out a disgusted sigh and points to the plate with her finger. 

    "What is this?!" she shrieked. 

    The servant turns his attention to the plate and his eyes widen.

      "Answer me!" she screams.

    He starts to tremble.

    "Its a bug your highness." he says shaking with fear. 

    "Well than get rid of it!" she screams. "Bring me a new meal." 

    The servant does as he's told and after a minute he brings her a new plate. He sets it down wincing as if my mother will hit him.

     My mother inspects her plate one more time picking every little piece up. Once again she shrieks. 

    "Guards!" she calls. 

    All of a sudden three faceless androids barge in to the room. The servant has a wide shock on his face. 

    "Take this man away!" she orders. "No please no!" the now former servant cries out. "I have three children and a wife they all need me!" 

    My mother looks up to the androids annoyed by the man. 

    "Find his family, bring all of them to the execution grounds this afternoon." she says. 

    The androids take the ex-servant away with him weeping. 

     My mother looks to me. 

    "Don't be late today Sophie, we have a execution to attend now this afternoon". I hang my head down,get up and leave the table.

    This is what its like every day. Doesn't matter how big or small you are. You are not safe here.

    The execution grounds used to be a beautiful courtyard for people to enjoy. But after my father died it has been changed to the dreadful execution grounds.

    As my mother and I are escorted to the execution grounds everyone in the kingdom is there. My mother makes her way up to the platform with our thrones. She greets everyone with a smile showing that she's pleased as she spread her arms out wide. 

    "Peasants!" she exclaims. "While all of you are living in poverty, remember that you are helping me the queen and all of you are not created equal. When you fail to do your job by serving me, well, this happens." She gestures her arm to the guillotine showing and takes her seat at the biggest throne. I take my seat in the smaller one beside her. There reveals the man from this morning, his wife, and three children. Two boys and a little girl. The oldest boy looks about my age, the middle boy looks about nine, and the little girl looks about five. 

    I am screaming inside. Theres rage inside of me there must be something I could do. I see the little girl look up at me with pleading eyes and as soon as the man from this morning gets up on the platform. I get up and I scream so everyone could hear me. 

    "NO! STOP! NO!" I scream. The whole kingdom stares at me.     

"Guards!" my mother screams. She points to me. 

    "Take her to her room and beat her." Two androids grab me as I kick and scream at them.

2: 2

I'm taken to my room and thrown to the wooden floor while I'm beaten down by the androids. Their metal hands hurt like blades cutting me. 

    A half and hour of torture passes and the androids timer went off and they left my room. 

    I`m bleeding all over. This hasn't been the first time I've been beaten by them. Their ordered to beat me by my mother. This happens when I make a mistake. I only yell out for children when they get executed just so they no thier feeling loved. 

    If my Uncle knew about this he would kill my mother. But my mother threatens me not to tell him or else she kill him and I.    An hour passes and my friends Caleb and Ava finally come and then rush over to my side where the androids left me. 

    "Oh Sophie what did they do to you." Ava asks crying and pulls me into a hug. Caleb just stands there with a hurt expression on his face.     Ava looks up at him and tells him to get first aid. He comes back in a minute with the kit. 

    "Okay lets get you bandaged up." Ava says. She looks at Caleb and tell him to leave he does as he's told and he leaves. 

    Ava helps me remove my clothes. I feel a burning sensation in my back when this happens. I yelp in pain. 

    "Sorry." Ava says. 

    Once my clothes are removed I look into the mirror and see my scars. Ever since the first time I was beaten by the androids when I was eight, I have counted all my scars on my body. Thats why all my dresses cover me up, to hide what is really going on. So far there are twenty one scars on my body, and the newly fresh wound on my back has made it twenty two now. 

    Ava gets the bandages and starts wrapping them around my chest and torso. She's used to doing this by now. 

    "So how did the execution go?" I asked Ava. 

    "They still got executed." Ava says. 

    "It was horrible, the girl screamed and cried but in the end the queen got her way." 

    I shut my eyes tight and ball up my fists knowing that there was nothing I could do. 

    "That little girl had a whole life to live and it's my fault that all of that got thrown away." I say. 

    "Its not your fault." Ava says calming me. "At least she died knowing that someone cared about her." 

    "True." I say. "But now she's with the other kids I have tried to save." 

    "And who knows maybe there in a place where they can grow up and experience life." Ava says. 

    "Yeah." I say reaching for my night gown and putting it on. 

    Ava looks at the clock on the table. 

    "Okay I got to go." she says getting up from my bed." I made a deal with Caleb that I'll do the dishes for him as long as he makes us sandwiches for dinner tomorrow." 

    "Good deal." I say moving my arms a bit testing the bandages. "He always makes good food." 

    Ava laughs. "When doesn't he, thats the only thing he's good at." 

    "Heard that." Caleb says standing at my door. Ava and I both laugh.     "I'll leave you two alone." Ava says exiting out the door. 

     After she leaves Caleb and I remain in an awkward silence. He finally comes over to my bed and hugs me. I hug him back and we stay there for a while. He smells like fish and potatoes but I don't mind.

     "I'm sorry about that little girl." he says letting go of the hug. 

    "It's okay." I say. "She's in a better place now." 

    "Yeah." he says. "But how will we get there." 

    "We will." I say. "Someday." 

    He gets up and looks at me. 

    "Well, you hungry?" he asks. 

    "Yeah a little." I say. "Good." he says scooping me up, carrying me like I'm a small child 

    "Because I'm starving." He starts to spin me around until I'm dizzy and feeling nauseated. Then he stops. 

    "What was that for?" I ask."

    "I dunno." he says. "What do you want for dinner?" 

     "Hmm, some chowder sounds good tonight." 

    "Chowder it is!" he says throwing me on the bed. "I'll be right back."

    He exits the room and I lay there on the bed. It's not like Caleb's my boyfriend or anything it's just that we have a very playful and close relationship thats all. He started working here when I was eight and like Ava and I we've been best friends ever since. He's fourteen now and I'm thirteen theres nothing wrong with that. He has a bit of muscles,dark hair, brown eyes, and he's very good looking. I have him stay the night with me sometimes because of my nightmares we just sleep thats all. But I have other things to worry about.

    Instead I think about the execution and the people who were killed. I'm next in line for the throne and I have thought about killing my mother, as horrible as it sounds but its what has to be done. I have no love for her. Neither does she for me. 

    But the androids which there are fifteen thousand of them, they can't be disabled never the less Caleb, Ava and I can't take on all of them. 

    I'm closed off all contact with my Uncle unless he visits so he can't get his army to take care of it right away.

    I know that one day I will die because of my mother. Just like my father. 

    My father was a good man. He treated everyone with respect. He never said a bad word about anybody. He would sacrifice himself for anyone in a time of need. He didn't deserve to be killed.

    Back when he ruled the kingdom everybody who worked in the castle got rewards, nobody was executed, flowers bloomed, and everyone was happy. Everyone but my mother.

    Caleb comes back with two bowls and a tray. I bolt out of bed when this happens.  He sets the food on the table and pulls out my chair and I sit in it. We sit down to our meal and I take a bite out of the the chowder. I taste the steaming potatoes and the soup melts into my mouth making me crave for more. Then I simply eat like a pig. Caleb looks up at me and laughs. 

    "Guess you were more hungrier than I was." I nod my head in agreement and keep on eating. Once I'm done I lean back. 

    "You are such a good cook." I tell Caleb. 

    "You tell me that everyday." he says laughing. 

    "Well thats because you are!"

    We sit and talk for a while and we talk about what happened in the kitchen today and what Ava is probably doing now. 

    "She's probably drenched in dish water now." Caleb says

    "Or trying to avoid Crazy Mike in the kitchen." I joke. 

    "She hates him doesn't she." Caleb says. 

    "Yeah." I say. "Well if he didn't bang on the frying pan and run around hitting on the staff then he would be okay." 

    "He's normal in the daytime." Caleb says. 

    "I hope so." I say.     

    Caleb looks at the time then looks back at me. 

    "I better get going," He says. 

    "Okay," I say. He exits the room and I collapse with exhaustion.

3: 3

I'm standing in a room that has nothing but white. The white continues to go on for eternity leaving emptiness. 

    "Why?" I hear in an echoey voice. When I hear this I search around the setting. 

    "Why?" The voice says again. I finally end my search to see that its the girl from this afternoon. I instantly freeze in my position. 

    "Why didn't you save me why?" she says again with her pleading eyes. 

    "I tried." I say. "I'm sorry."

    She turns her head back against me then she turns around eyes glowing green. 

    "No you didn't try your just like her!" she says in a voice that does not sound like a child but a monster with a deep raspy voice. "You deserve to be killed!" she says. Then my mother appears right there beside her. When she appears points her long boney finger to me. 

    "Kill me!" I yell. "Go ahead!" I squat down and hold my head in my hands. The little girl grows enormous claws and then bolts toward me. Her sharp claws scratch deep into my back leaving marks. I wince as I endure the non existent pain. 

    But then I wake in cold sweat and I'm screaming. When Caleb hears this he jerks awake. 

    "Sophie." he yells grabbing me and stroking my hair. "Shh its okay." He says this in a soothing voice as if I'm a small child. 

    "I'm fine." I say. "Really." 

    "What was the dream about?" he says.

    I tell him about the dream and he listens to every word. 

    "Your not like your mother." he says. "You may be related to her but that doesn't mean your not a good person. To me at least you are one of the kindest people I know."  

    "Thank you." I say. 

    "Your welcome." he says. "Now lets go back to sleep."

     He lets me go and we climb back under the covers and then we just lay there till we fall asleep.

       The next morning I wake up around five and Caleb is gone. I get up and grab my red cloak and throw it over the nightgown i`m wearing. I slip on some sandals and open my bedroom door and head down the stairs. 

    Half of the staff is human while the guards are androids. Luckily there are only humans going to work early this morning.  

    I open the steel doors we have in front of the palace and I step outside. The color of the sky is a dim gray out because its spring. I feel early morning chills run up my back and I hurry down to the ocean we have out back.

    When I get there the sand tickles my feet as I scurry through the shore. I sit down and then I stare out into the horizon. After about ten minutes I turn around and see a human like figure. Its Caleb. 

    "Caleb!" I call out. 

    "Sophie!" he yells back. He catches up to me and he sits down. 

    "I have bad news." he says. 

    "What is it?" I say.

    "I`ve been selected." he says in a serious tone.

    "What!" I scream. "You can't be! Your only fourteen you have to be sixteen and up!

    Selection is when my mother goes insane and she needs someone to torture. Anyone over eighteen is eligible for torture.   

"I know, I tried telling the selectors that I was fourteen but they wouldn't believe me." Caleb said.

    I don't blame them, Caleb may be fourteen but he already has finished his growth. He says its a weird genetic thing where his family ages fast. At least thats all he remembers from when he was with his family the first eight years of his life.

    "You could die!" I scream.

    "I know." he says "But we will find a way."

    "How?" I say glaring at him. 

    "I don't know." He gets up. "I have to go to work now okay?"

    "Okay." 

    I watch him walk away and when he leaves I curl up and sigh.

        --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Everyone lines up and Caleb is standing among them. We give each other that look as my mother scrolls through the people. Then she points to Caleb   

4: 4

Caleb and I just can't help but have shocked expressions on our faces. When my mother walks toward him he opens up his mouth about to say something. Then he finally says something. 

     "Your Majesty this is a mistake." My mother suddenly stops cold and has a puzzled expression on her face.

    "A mistake?" she questions raising her eyebrows. "How?" 

    "You see I'm just a boy." he continues in a serious tone the sunlight hitting his face."Fourteen years to be exact." 

    "How is this possible you must have some sort of proof." she says. Caleb hesitates and he finally comes up with proof.

     "I work in the kitchen as a full time dishwasher and a part time cook. I am aquatinted with some of the people who work alongside me, if you ask around about my age they will reply that I am fourteen." Caleb says without a stutter. "So I suggest that you pick someone else and set me free." Even I am surprised by how calm mature he is in this situation. 

    My mother is not angered by this somehow which surprises me again, instead she takes a deep breath and exhales. Then she speaks.

    "If what you are saying is true."she beckons him over with her finger like how I saw in my dream last night and he follows. She pulls him into a room to the left and I'm left standing in the room with all the remaining men. A few androids are in the rooms with her while some of them are with me. I quickly turn to see all the men there must be about thirty of them. Some of the men are short, some of them are tall, some of them are fat, some of them are skinny, most good looking, but the rest are a little funny looking. This is awkward. I quickly turn away and then Caleb and my mother come out of the room. He looks at me at the same time with his brown eyes when I look at him. Then we both look away. 

     My mother looks at the men. "Everyone except you." she points to a man that looks like he's twenty five. "Are dismissed." 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I'm walking to the dining room to have dinner with my mother but then I'm interrupted by being pushed against a wall. I try to get out of it but then  I look up and see that its Caleb.

    "What the hell Caleb!" I say. 

    "Listen I don't have much time." he starts. "But the queen made a deal with me to poison you and I agreed to do it." 

    "Wait what why? I thought she ruled until her death." I say. 

    "No thats not true at all according to the kingdoms rules once you become twenty one, and you have a regent ruling then you are granted to take the kingdom." he says as if reciting from a book.

    "Yeah but she's not a regent." I say.

    "She was named one once your father died."

     "By who?" 

    "Your uncle." 

    My uncle holds all the documents and archives of the history and rules of the kingdom. He's the only one who holds it and if someone wants to learn about it, they have to get royal permission.

    "But anyway I was thinking that I'll poison the food and when it's served you don't eat it." Caleb says. 

    "How?"

    "Just say your sick or something." 

    "Okay now will you please let me go."

    "Oh sorry." He lets go of my arms and I straighten out my dress.

    "Thank you." I say. I start to head toward the dining room when I hear Caleb say "Good Luck"

    When I come face to face with the door to the room I take a deep breath and head in.

5: 5

"My dear Sophie." my mother says in her kindest voice.

    "Mother I'm feeling a bit sick, like nausea sick." I say in my best acting voice. I hold my stomach. 

    "Oh well it's probably the fact your just hungry dear." she says in her kind voice again. She keeps adding dear to the end of her sentences which makes me want to vomit for real. I feel the urge to tell her no but in the back of my head somethings saying I need to agree with her for my sake.

    "Your right."I say. 

    The servants bring out the food and its soup again, must be the easiest to hide poison in. I stretch my head a little and see that my mothers soup is tan while mine is orange and red. My mother eats away while I sit there and stare at my poisoned soup. 

    "Eat or else your soup will get cold dear." she says. This whole "dear" at the end of the sentence is really pissing me off now. 

    "I'm going to go I think Im about to…." I say running off covering my mouth as if I'm about to puke.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "So you ran off as if you were about to puke." Caleb says that night. Caleb, Ava and I are sitting on my bed hanging out like we normally do. 

    "Yeah." I say. "Why can't you just poison her instead of me?" 

    "She gave me this whole thing about the poison and it food colors in every meal I can imagine to hide poison in." Caleb says.

    "Oh, well she must have had this whole thing planned out for a while." Ava says.

    "Do you have a paper about it?" I ask Caleb.

    "Right here." he pulls the folded paper out of his pocket. "Brought it just in case."  I snatch the paper from his hands and study it with Ava. There on the top of the list was my mothers soup and my soup from the last meal. My soup color was under the "poisoned" column and her soup color was under the "normal" color. 

    "How much do you want to bet she has this whole thing mesmerized." Ava says. 

    "She probably does." I say handing it back to Caleb. 

    "So what do we do?" Ava says. 

    "If she lets us then we'll have Caleb bring me my meals and look like he poisoned it but then we'll switch it out for normal food when I eat." I say. 

    "Okay." Caleb and Ava say.

    "But if she doesn't then I don't know what we'll do." I say.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Luckily my mother let my plan happen without knowing its a plan. Caleb cooks the food and poisons it, he shows the food to her, she approves, then he brings the poison food to me, I don't eat it, then he swaps out the poison for normal food secretly. This continued for a couple of days until my mother requested to see me for dinner on a rainy day. 

    "Its mandatory." Ava says.

    "What do we do?" I ask. 

    "Use these." she says placing an android killer and a knife in my hands. 

    "Are you sure?" I ask.

    She nods her head.

     I head to dinner and theres my mother.

    "How are you feeling Sophie?" she asks waiting for her expected answer. So I answer what she wants to hear."

    "I feel like I'm getting sicker everyday." I lie.

    "Oh well thats too bad." she says. "I had the chef prepare your favorite meal." The servants bring out curry and set the plate down. My meal looks like the color on the poisoned column for curry which is a brownish and my mothers looks normal.

    "Eat up." she says. I stare at my plate and my mother catches on.

    "I said eat up." she says raising her voice. I still remain staring at my plate and my hands are shaking as I'm balling up my hands into fists. She finally loses her temper and orders the androids to bring Caleb out. I look up to see Caleb being dragged by the androids with a knife against his throat. I my eyes widen in fear as thunder rattles through the castles stones.

    "Now be a good little girl and eat your meal." My mother says to me sweetly. My blood boils and I take the risk by taking out the android killer and shooting all of the androids in the room, including the one holding Caleb. The android lets go of falls to the ground and luckily Caleb survives. He gags a little but after a few seconds he's fine. I look back at my mother and she is shocked.

    "Over my dead body!" I yell at her.

    "Guards." she calls. A dozen androids come barging in.

    "Take her and the kitchen rat to the dungeon but don't beat them, tomorrow they will be burned alive at stake." 

    The androids grab me and Caleb and they whisk us away to the dungeon.

    Were screwed.